Having checked out of my hotel at noon I met my guide who was going to show me around Tashkent for the rest of the day before my late evening flight home. This time it was another female guide named Kamelia.

She explalined she was half Russian and half Uzbek but when you include her grandparents its a mix of five nationalities. We also had a new driver named Nadir.

First we started at the Alishor Navoi Ballet and Opera House which faces the hotel. This sits in its own plaza and was built from 1939-42. Work was completed after the war

It was built by Japanese POWs and was made with a mix of eastern and western architecture. The base of the pillars is western but the upper arch architecture was eastern.

The interior is undergoing renovation so we couldnt see inside. My hotel Tashkent Palace sits on the other side. This is a 1960s Soviet building that was gutted and rebuilt in the last ten years.

I now needed something to eat and there is nothing in this area. There was one pasta restaurant which we took a look at but I didnt fancy that. Then my guide suggested another restaurant the other side of the opera house.

This was a family style Russian restaurant but I didnt know if I could eat the food. My guide checked and said everything was halal and that many Uzbek government workers also ate here.

It was nice to get to try some Russian food but now I was very confused as there were too many choices. I really couldnt decide and needed to eat so just picked something at random.

I ended up with a beef potatoe and vegetable dish, a chick pea salad side dish, and some bread. The total was 11,300 ($5.85) slightly more than most restaurants I'd been to.

There were many choices of main entree and I could have sampled everything if I had the time and room in my stomach. As well they had many dessert items.

It good to know this is by the hotel if I ever stay here again. It just would be quite confusing ordering by myself as you have to ask the staff to serve you and I dont know how the combo choices work